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Monday, September 24, 2012

You will be hearing
of wars and rumors of wars. See that you
are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the
end. For nation will rise against nation,
and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and
earthquakes. But all these things are
merely the beginning of birth pangs. – Matthew 24:6-8

Many people have been asking me questions about the
recent news in Sudan, so I want to use part of this month’s newsletter to set
your heart at ease. A few weeks ago, on
September 11th, there was news about Islamic protests in Libya and
Egypt, including the American ambassador in Libya being killed. Shortly after this, there were reports of
American embassies being evacuated and further protests in other Islamic
countries, including Sudan. Here is a
quote from Reuters.com:

In
Khartoum, wider anger at Western attitudes to Islam also saw the German embassy
overrun, with police doing little to stop demonstrators who raised a black
Islamist flag. Violence at the U.S.
embassy followed protests against both Washington and the Sudanese government,
which is broadly at odds with the West.

There is more in the article above talking about pressure
on President Bashir by Islamic radicals in the country and the history of Sudan
and Islamic extremists.

That is the news about Sudan. With all of that stuff going on now, I want
to reassure our family and prayer team that these things have almost no effect
on us at all. The country of Southern
Sudan became separate from Sudan (“The North”) over a year ago. Above I posted a map of Sudan where you can
see Khartoum (where these things are happening) and Kajo Keji (where we will be
living), they are approximately 800 miles apart, which is virtually unreachable
by Sudanese roads. Our plans to go to
Sudan haven’t changed.

Please
remember our brothers from the North in prayer as the environment becomes
increasingly difficult for them. As part
of the “e3 Sudan” team, we are striving to bring the gospel to the 20 million
people of Sudan, twenty million souls whom God loves and for whom Christ
died. Sometimes the idea of reaching
this many people is staggering, but God is powerful and is working in the
Southern Sudanese church to make this goal a reality.

As I
write this, Amy is 37 weeks pregnant! We
had an appointment last week where the doctor told us that she is still
measuring like she should (maybe even a few millimeters smaller). It still seems unreal that we are going to
have a baby in a couple of weeks.

Support raising is still going well. We increased the goal to $4500/month to cover
extra costs from having a baby around, and with a few changes in our donor list
that leaves us about $600/month short of our final goal. The building cost is also coming in rather
well. God has provided about $16,000 of
our $50,000 goal. Thank you for praying
with us about these things!